Regina city council votes against bridge and underpass signage

The City of Regina has chosen to not add imperial measurements to underpasses and bridges.

Norman Kyle, Director of Transportation and Roadways said the rationale behind the decision was mainly due to less confusion for truck drivers.

“When you put signage up it’s to convey a message to drivers,” said Kyle. “We want the signage to be simple and the message to be easily conveyed.”

He adds that by adding two height measurements to the signs, it could in fact confuse the driver even more.

“We felt that by posting both heights it’s not a simple message, and it takes the driver longer to see that and react to that,” said Kyle. “Then when they’re trying to convert they’re like ‘well am I nine feet or am I three meters’.”

Kyle said that no matter which province or even country you’re driving in, you need to adhere to the laws. Administration will focus on a route cause analysis on the collision with a bridge or underpass which will look at all of the factors involved.

“You know like, was the driver taking a short cut, did he GPS tell him to take the bridge route” explained Kyle. “Or the new trucks now have ride air suspension on them, so when you have a heavy load, it’ll jack it up so you can have a smoother ride, which will change the height of the vehicle, so we’ll look at factors like that.”

Kyle said once the analysis is done then they’ll put the appropriate safety measures in place based on what the real cause is rather than just the perception of height.